Chocolate Bark

I thought I’d share a quick holiday recipe in case you need a last minute idea for something to take to a party.  This recipe takes a healthy spin on the traditional chocolate bark.  It’s got lots of delicious superfoods so you can enjoy this treat with less guilt!   

Ingredients
200g dark chocolate
¼ tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp pistachios (shelled and halved)
2 tbsp goji berries
1 tbsp desiccated coconut

 

Instructions

1. Line a dish with baking parchment. I used an 8x8in dish but you can use a smaller or bigger one depending on how thick or thin you want your bark to be.
2. Sit a heat proof bowl in a pan of boiling water over a medium heat. Break the chocolate into small pieces, add to the bowl and stir continuously until it has all melted. Add the vanilla and mix well.
3. Pour the melted chocolate into the parchment lined dish. Top with the pistachios, goji berries and coconut.
4. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes or until the chocolate has set.
5. Store in the fridge for up to 1 week

 

I hope you have a WONDERFUL Christmas!

Protein

Protein is an essential part of any healthy diet.  Your body needs protein to function at it’s top capacity!  Proteins are the building blocks for everything in your body.  They form enzymes, antibodies, hormones, hair, nails, bone, teeth, hemoglobin, neurotransmitters, skin…………..they are the basic component for any and all types of cells in the body.   Protein is required for the growth and maintenance of every kind of cell.  It actually forms enzymes, hormones and antibodies.  This promotes a healthy metabolism and boosts our nervous and immune system. 

 

Most of us know that protein can be found in all types of meat.  And lean meat is the best type to consume.  But maybe you don’t eat meat, like meat or tend to eat enough.  You can still get protein in many different forms!  Here are some meatless options for you!  

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!

Thanksgiving

Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving!!!  So for those of you that are planning to indulge tomorrow……here is a good idea of what those extra calories may cost you!   

Now that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your favorite foods!  It just means you may need to get up and move a little more this weekend.  It’s supposed to be nice so enjoy some fresh air!  Take a walk after lunch.  Play football with the fam.  You could even do some outside chores!  J And if you are stuck in the house and happen to be watching the parade, here is a special workout for you!    

I hope everyone has a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving and that you have many things to be thankful for this season!

Cheap

Healthy food doesn’t have to be expensive!  There are plenty of healthy foods that are super cheap!  All of the following foods are under $1 per serving!

 

OATS
$0.13 per serving, about $1 per pound

 

EGGS
$0.19 per egg, about $2 per dozen

 

BLACK BEANS
$0.30 cents per ½ cup serving, about $1 per can

GARBANZO BEANS
$0.30 per ½ cup serving, about $1 per can

 

ALMONDS$0.60 for a 1oz serving (20-25 nuts), about $5 per 8oz bag

 

CANNED TUNA
$0.75 cents, about $1.20 per can

 

BROWN RICE
$0.18 per ¼ cup serving, about $2 per pound

 

QUINOA
$0.60 per ¼ cup serving, about $4 per box

 

BANANAS
$0.20 to $0.50 per banana, about $0.60 per pound or $2 per bunch

 

SPINACH
$0.50 per cup (raw), about $2 per bunch

 

WATER
FREE

 Have a WONDERFUL weekend! 

Sleep

Do you get enough sleep each night?  Could you possibly be sleep deprived?!  

Getting a bad night’s sleep every now and then has no big, lasting effect.  But chronic lack of sleep can do a doozie on the body!  Maybe you have a newborn.  Or like to go out for late night dinners.  Or maybe you’ve just been binge watching the past five seasons of Downton Abbey!  It doesn’t matter the cause….the effect is the same.  Lack of sleep can lead to type 2 diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and depression.  Take a look at the list below to see if you may need to be getting more sleep!

 

1. You’re always hungry.  When your body doesn’t get the rest and energy it needs from sleep, it will try to get it from food.  Grehlin (the hunger hormone) increases when you are low on rest.
2. You’ve gained weight.  When you are tired you aren’t as conscientious about what you are eating.  You are more likely to choose nutritional poor foods for a quick “pick me up”.
3. You’re more impulsive.  People are more likely to give in to temptation when they are exhausted. 
4. Your memory’s shot.  The brain reorganized and stores memories while you sleep.
5. You’re having trouble making decisions.  Sleep deprivation effects speed and higher level cognitive thinking.  So that means that you may have a hard time with decision making, reaction time and time management if you are tired. 
6. Your emotions are all over the place.  Lack of sleep can make you oversensitive to emotional stimuli.  You may experience sadness, anxiety or anger.  On the flip side, you could also get slap happy or almost delirious with the sillies.
7. You get sick often.  Your immune system can be compromised when you are overtired and your body loses it’s ability to fight off infection.
8. Your skin isn’t looking good.  They call it beauty sleep for a reason.  Your skin renews itself and your body produces more collagen while our are asleep.

 So make sure you are getting good sleep!!!  Have a WONDERFUL weekend!

Kid's Stuff

Anyone have a picky eater in their house?  Or maybe YOU’RE the picky one!    Sometimes it’s a challenge to get kids to eat anything healthy!  Here are a few tips I found on how to get those kiddos to eat a little better.

 

Keep the ‘dislike’ foods on the menu
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That goes for serving kids the broccoli, peas and crust-on sandwiches. A new study published in the journal Appetite found that repeated exposure to foods in childhood is strongly related to liking the food later in life—even if the foods were originally on the “yuck!” list. Researchers asked college students to reminisce about how frequently they ate various foods in their childhood years, along with how much they enjoyed them. The students also reported their current opinion. The only items the students still didn’t like? Foods they never ate as a child. Even when parents had introduced a disliked food infrequently, the students reported currently liking it more than if it was never on the menu. Don’t give up! Take a deep breath and keep dishing up the sprouts.

Plate it like Picasso
Mashed potatoes, French fries, pasta: for many kids, only beige foods pass muster. But new research suggests children’s natural affinity for bright colors may help parents of picky eaters encourage a more nutritionally-diverse diet. The Cornell University study found plates with seven different items and six different colors were the most appealing to children.

 

Don’t utter the G-word
The idea that eating carrots can make you smarter may encourage you to snack on crudité, but a study in the Journal of Consumer Research suggests mentioning the health benefits of food to children can have the opposite effect. Researchers found 4 to 6-year-olds were more likely to snack on carrots after they were read a story about a girl who regularly ate them than when the story included a health message that the carrots also helped her learn to count. To a kid’s ear, the words “good for you” sound a lot like “tastes bad.” Researchers say parents are better off staying mum on the health benefits, or emphasizing how delicious a food is instead.

 

Keep calm and get cooking
Reach for your chef’s whites more often and your kids may start reaching for more broccoli—even when you’re not around. A recent study conducted by Penn State University found that kids whose parents spent more time preparing meals at home independently choose healthy snacks like broccoli over high-calorie options like cookies from the same food spread. Better yet, hand over the whisk to your mini helper. A second study published by Public Health Nutrition found that children who helped with cooking showed a greater preference for fruits and vegetables.

 

Stock up on ramekins
Using small bowls or ramekins when serving up dessert and other energy-dense snacks like chips may prevent kids from overeating—and parents, too. A recent Cornell study published in the Journal of Pediatrics found bigger bowls (16-ounce versus 8-ounce) caused preschoolers to request 87 percent more cereal and eat 52 percent more than they would otherwise, regardless of their age, weight or BMI.

 

Hope you have a GREAT weekend! 

Halloween Candy

For the most part, Halloween is for the kids.  You dress them up, go house to house and end up with a TON of candy.  And Saturday night (or Sunday morning……or all next week!) you may be tempted to dive into some of their sweet treats!  Will they really miss one or seven pieces?!!  Or maybe you bought an extra bag of candy all for yourself!  However it happened….you’ve surrounded yourself with all kinds of tempting treats!  Now I’m not going to spend this time telling you how to avoid candy or how to choose raisins or celery over the candy.  That’s great if you do!  But we all love a treat every now and then so let’s see which candy is the BEST choice! 

Most experts agree that the biggest offenders are the candies that have no content:  Candy made of pure sugar and no substance or food.  Dark chocolate, nuts, coconut……these are all real foods and can at least provide a little protein and antioxidants.  The other thing to think about it the calorie count and amount of sugar.  Some candies seem similar but one may be a better option based on calories and sugar content.  Below are some examples from Eat This, Not That and why they are or are not the best choice.

 

WORST “FUN SIZE” CANDY BAR: 
Butterfinger 

100 calories, 4 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 10 g sugar  IT HAS MORE CALORIES THAN TWO BREYERS PURE FRUIT BERRY SWIRL POPSICLES!  Many candy bars are high in sugar. Many are high in fat. But Butterfinger has magical ability to be high in both. Adding even one “fun size” Butterfinger to your food intake every day is enough to add more than 10 pounds to your body in the next year. There’s nothing fun about that.
EAT THIS INSTEAD: 
3 Musketeers

63 calories, 2 g fat, 1.5 g saturated fat, 10 g sugar

WORST CLASSIC FRUIT CANDY:
Brach’s Airheads (3)

140 calories, 1.5 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 19 g sugar  IT HAS MORE SUGAR AND CALORIES THAN ½ CUP OF EDY’S SLOW CHURNED MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP!  Here’s the basic formula for an Airhead: Sugar and filler carbohydrates, artificial colors and flavors, and partially hydrogenated oils—the source of trans fat. Dum Dums might not be nutritional paragons, but they do have two noteworthy advantages over Airheads:  1. No heart-wrecking oils, and 2. They’re made from hard candy. That means they dissolve slowly on your tongue, letting you enjoy the sweetness over time and preventing you from feverishly tearing through Airheads.
EAT THIS INSTEAD:
Spangler Dum Dum Pops (3)

60 calories, 0 g fat, 11 g sugar

WORST MINIATURE CANDY BARS:
Twix Miniatures (3)

150 calories, 7 g fat, 4 g saturated, 15 g sugar  IT HAS MORE CALORIES THAN TWO FUDGSICLE ORIGINAL FUDGE POPS!  Twix has the worst saturated fat profile of any candy in your kid’s trick-or-treat bag. Think about it like this: Each serving of these bite-sized candies carries 20 percent of the saturated fat you should consume in an entire day. Switch to Tootsie Rolls and you’ll cut your calories by more than half and trim your total fat intake by a whopping 79 percent.
EAT THIS INSTEAD:
Tootsie Rolls (3)

70 calories, 1.5 g fat, 0.5 g saturated fat, 9.5 g sugar

 

WORST MINT CANDY:
Junior Mints (1 fun size box)

76.5 calories, 1.35 g fat, 1.13 g saturated fat, 14.4 g sugar  IT HAS AS MUCH SUGAR AS 3 CHIPS AHOY! CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!   Junior Mints are hard to resist because they’re poppable; you feel like you’re getting a lot because you get to enjoy them over and over until the box is gone. What you’re actually getting more of, though, is calories and sugar. Stick with Charlie Brown’s ambiguously gendered girlfriend, Peppermint Pattie, and cut your calories by a third. (Thirty calories may not seem like a lot, but that’s enough to add more than 3 pounds of flab every year to your fine frame.)
EAT THIS INSTEAD:
York Peppermint Pattie (1 snack size piece)

60 calories, 1 g fat, 0.5 g saturated fat, 11 g sugar

 

WORST CHEWY FRUITY CANDY:
Skittles (fun size package)

60 calories, 0.6 g fat, 0.1 g saturated fat, 11.3 g sugar  IT HAS MORE SUGAR THAN 3 KEEBLER SANDIES SIMPLY SHORTBREAD COOKIES!  Repeat after me: If it’s your waist you want to whittle, keep your fingers off the Skittles. Sugar, corn syrup and food dye—that’s all you’re getting from a package of Skittles. Starburst cuts the sugar nearly in half by using apple juice concentrate to add extra sweetness and cut down on the corn.
EAT THIS INSTEAD:
Starburst (fun size w/ 2 pieces)

40 calories, 0.8 g fat, 0.1 g saturated fat, 6.7 g sugar

 

WORST PEANUT BUTTER CANDY: Reese’s miniatures (5)

220 calories, 13 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 23 g sugar  IT HAS AS MANY CALORIES AS TWO CANS OF RED BULL—AND NEARLY SIX SUGAR PACKETS WORTH OF SUGAR!  The American Heart Association says an adult woman should have no more than 25 grams of added sugar a day. Reese’s manages to pack almost that much into one serving of these miniatures. Maybe they should be called “maxiatures”?
EAT THIS INSTEAD:M&Ms Peanut Butter (2 packages)

190 calories, 11 g fat, 6 g saturated fat, 17 g sugar

 

So there you have it!  Did your favorites make the cut?!!  Have a WONDERFUL and SAFE Halloween weekend!

 

Cold and Flu

There are lots of “old wives' tales” when it comes to cold and flu season.  I know I’ve heard many of these myths before!  

Remember to eat lots of fruits and veggies, get lots of sleep, exercise and minimize stress.  This helps boost your immune system to keep you nice and healthy!  And don’t forget to wash your hands frequently and avoid touching your face. 

 

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!

Chia Seeds

Have you ever tried chia seeds?!  They are super healthy and very easy to add into your diet. 

There are many ways to enjoy them!  You can add them to oatmeal, sprinkle it on salad, make it into a pudding or egg substitute, sprinkle it into a smoothie or shake, put it in baked goods and even on top of fresh fruit!  Chia seeds are an easy add in!

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!

Results

Have you been working out and exercising for some time now and haven’t seen the results you’ve wanted?  There may be an easy answer to why this is happening!  I came across an article online and they listed 10 reasons you aren’t seeing results.  Here they are!

 

Exercise monotony. 

The problem with doing the same thing all the time is that your body gets so used to it that it no longer has to work hard, which means your body will not be going through any changes.  Rather than sticking with the same classes or exercises….switch it out!  Try new things and use lots of variety.

 

No lifting, no gaining.  

While cardio is good for heart health and losing weight, lifting weights is good for turning your body into a lean, mean, muscle machine.  If you are lifting heavy weights where reaching eight reps is almost impossible, your body will be burning calories for hours after you are done.  You do not get that same benefit from doing cardiovascular exercise.  Once you are done running, that is it. So start picking up some weights and lift!

Where is the challenge?  

Do you always set your treadmill on the same speed and incline? Do you always use the same weight for your chest presses? If you do, then you are not giving your body a challenge that it desperately needs in order to see results. Start adding sprint intervals to those jogs or using heavier weights for those presses. It’s okay if you cannot run for long or can’t lift as many reps — that is good. Your body is being challenged which means it will have to work harder!

 

Food is the enemy.  

Let’s face it — you can work out like an Olympic athlete, but if you go home and gorge on pizza, pasta and cake, all that hard work was for nothing. Exercising is not a license to eat whatever you want. Be mindful of what you are eating throughout the day including those little bits of your kids’ leftover food. Every bite adds up!

 

Sipping away your success.  

Just like food, what you drink can also have an impact on seeing results. Your favorite café mocha may be like heaven to drink, but it is probably packed with lots of sugar and carbohydrates. Some juices, smoothies, flavored teas, and coffees have many calories along with the added sugar and carbs. Enjoy them at your own risk or opt for something better like black coffee, herbal tea or lemon water.

Stressing too much. 

Your emotional health can also take a toll on your physical health. If you are constantly stressing over everything, your body releases too much cortisol, a hormone that regulates stress. When you are under a lot of stress, your body reacts negatively to it. A decrease in muscle tissue, blood sugar imbalances, and increased abdominal fat can all result from constant high levels of stress. Find a relaxing activity that you truly enjoy, and do it every day to keep stress under control.

 

Not enough sleep.  

As with stress, if you are not sleeping enough, cortisol levels will be higher than they should. Make sure to go to bed at the same time every night whenever possible and wake up at the same time. You should get at least seven quality hours of sleep. Create an environment that is conducive to a good night’s sleep like turning off your electronic devices (including your TV and smartphone) and/or playing soothing music.

 

Your food is not what you think it is.  

There are a lot of healthy options when it comes to food, but there is also a lot of confusion. Some labels claim foods are natural or healthy, but they really are not. As a result, you’re not eating as healthy as you think you are. Become an avid label reader and read the ingredients first. If the ingredient list is a paragraph long, you would be wise to skip it and find something better. Foods should be mostly natural, unprocessed, and have minimal ingredients.

 

Skipping the water.  

It is just as important to stay hydrated as it is to eat right. Drinking water throughout the day will not only help your digestive system and flush things out (so to speak), but it will also help keep hunger in check. More often than not, those hunger pangs are really a cry for some hydration.

 

You never rest.  

Believe it or not, you need at least one day off from exercise each week. Your body needs time to recover, and the only chance it gets to do that is when it is not engaged in any physical activity. Gains are made during the recovery process and not when you are actually doing the work. So let your body do what it needs to give itself a break!

 

Everyone has set backs and plateaus.  Don’t let that discourage you!  You may just need to make a few adjustments to some of the things listed above!  Have a WONDERFUL weekend!

Salad Dressing

This summer I sent out information about salads.  I talked about all of the varieties and ways you could spice it up and change it.  Well another way to do that is by adding salad dressing.  Now I’m not talking about some garbarge, high calorie, high chemical salad dressing.  Adding a bunch of unhealhty dressing to a salad can cancel out all of the great nutritional benefits!  So I’m talking about a healthy version that you make!  Don’t these look delicious?!

And I’m not a huge fan of the Ranch Dip Mix……so you can always make your own using ½ tsp dried dill, ¼ tsp garlic powder, ¼ onion powder, 1 tbsp parsley, 1/8 tsp thyme, 1 tsp pepper and ½ tsp sea salt.  So ditch the bottle and whip up your own dressing! 

 

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!